The Balkan state of Montenegro is one of the smaller states in Europe with around 616,000 inhabitants and an area of 13,812 square kilometres. The capital and most populous city is Podgorica, the second largest city is Nikšić. The main economic sectors are the service sector and tourism, with the city of Budva and the city of Kotor mainly on the Montenegrin coast.
According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Montenegro has been one of the three fastest-growing travel destinations worldwide for years.
The German mark was introduced as the currency in 1999. As a result of the conversion of the German mark to the euro, the euro has been used as the national currency since 2002. Since the country does not participate in the European Monetary Union, it does not have the right to mint its own euro coins.
After we had repeatedly avoided driving around the beautiful Bay of Kotor on the way to Albania due to time constraints (we had always used the ferry at Kemenari), this time we were supposed to take the E 65 or E 80 around the bay to Kotor, with a stopover at the beach in Perast.
Coming from Dubrovnik, we were traveling with our caravan in the direction of Shkodra to Camping Legjenda, better known to some of our readers as Linda and Franc, and had chosen Budva in Montenegro as our stopover destination.
Our first encounter (about 15 years ago) with the capital of Montenegro was anything but pleasant, because a delivery truck had initially pushed the driver's door of our car in when we turned right and drove on without any reaction.